Norvic Philatelics - GB New Stamps and Special Postmarks

Animail - 17 May 2016

Royal Mail's stated "Reason and Inspiration"

"We have tried to have some fun with this stamp issue, designing
stamps and stamp products that are particularly
children-friendly and reminiscent of the highly popular Fun
Fruit & Veg stamps issued by Royal Mail in 2003.
Featuring six endearing animal characters that will wrap around
an envelope or cling on to a postcard, these are perfect for
adorning a piece of mail and making someone smile before they
have even open the envelope.

"Andrew Osborne who designed the stamps was challenged to devise
interactive stamps that particularly appealed to children and
encouraged them to brighten up their letters and cards. He
wanted to ‘push the envelope’ whilst working within the
constraints of the technical requirements around postage stamps
including the need for them to be easily read by Royal Mail’s
sorting machines. Inspired by a character from Aardman
Animations he came up with the idea of engaging, friendly and
fun animal characters that could ‘cling’ to the top or side of
envelopes. He wanted to create a variety of shapes and colours
to generate interest but was mindful that each character had to
sit comfortably alongside each other and have a degree of
consistency so that they clearly looked like they were part of a
set."

It seems that the leaders of Royal Mail's Stamps and
Collectibles team don't have aged under-10 children or
grandchildren. Even if these designs might
appeal to that target audience, I know several of that age
group who use smartphones and tablets to communicate with
their friends and family within the UK and across the world,
and even to send 'thank yous' to their older relatives.
The use of email even is being overtaken by things like
WhatsApp and Skype.

Whatever the intention, it isn't going to work, and this will
go down as another one of Royal Mail S&Cs desperate
failures.

The
Miniature Sheet

Technical details:

The stamps were designed by Magpie Studio with original illustrations of
the animals by Osborne Ross and paper-cut scenes by Owen
Gildersleeve. Printed by International Security Printers in
lithography on self-adhesive paper. The sheet is 192 x 74mm, with
all-over phosphor.

Special Postmarks

Postmarks available for the day of
issue are shown in Royal
Mail's Postmark Bulletin (pdf download) - editions of 15
& 29 April 2016 and possibly later.

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